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How to complete Monarch setup

Completing setup for Monarch takes only a minute or two and requires the following steps:
  1. Download Monarch
  2. Click **Get Started **in the main menu
  3. Enable Permissions
  4. Activate your Free Trial or purchase a license key

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Download Monarch

You can download Monarch directly from the official website here. Note that you will need to select the version that is compatible with your Macbook’s architecture and purchase a license key to run Monarch. Double-click the downloaded disk image (dmg) file and drag Monarch into your Applications folder. Move to Applications

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Purchase a license key

If you haven’t already, you can purchase a license key directly from Monarch here. Once the app is installed, you only have to enter your license key once when prompted to do so. Student discounts are available by emailing rmdashrfv@hey.com from your student email provided by your institution. Student discounts are 25% off.

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Enable Permissions

Setting up Permissions is the most involved part of getting started with Monarch. Below I’ve listed the Permissions required for Monarch to run along with the reason these Permissions are requested.
Note: Images shown below are for macOS Sonoma, but should be relatively similar for Monterey and Ventura.
Accessibility is required for determining which app has content being copied to and from your clipboard history.
Input Monitoring is required to run clipboard functions when you press the CMD key during the Copy action.
Automation is required for automatically pasting entries from your clipboard history into other apps for you.
Full Disk Access is required to enable Monarch to open folders such as Documents and Desktop with ease as well as enabling you to run the “Add New Folder” command to add more folders to Monarch’s search. Monarch will also prompt for access to control web browsers such as Google Chrome, Brave, Safari, etc.
Screen Capture (also known as Screen Recording) is for capturing the screen when using Monarch’s powerful Color Picker capabilities which allow for zoom in / zoom out.
Once you have set up all four Permissions for Monarch, you are all set! From here, it’s best to take a look at further options that Monarch has to offer via Settings. You can access your Monarch Settings by opening Monarch searching for it, or via the Menu Bar.

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Default Monarch Shortcut

Disabling Spotlight Search isn’t required to get Monarch to work, however it is strongly recommended to better build muscle memory and get work done faster.
By default Monarch is opened with Option + Space, however, I recommend disabling the keyboard shortcut for Spotlight Search, then opening Monarch Settings and setting the shortcut to Command + Space.

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How to fully replace Spotlight Search with Monarch

Open your System Settings to the “Keyboard” section (you can open Monarch and search for “Keyboard”). You are looking for Keyboard Shortcuts on macOS Ventura and Sonoma: Keyboard shortcuts Once you click Keyboard Shortcuts, you should see this screen. From here, simply go to Spotlight Search on the left and then uncheck the keyboard shortcut to open it. Keyboard shortcuts Now in Monarch, you can open your Monarch Settings by either using the icon in the Menu Bar or by opening the app and pressing Command + Space. You can then click the Shortcut entry input box and press the Command + Space to set Monarch to open where Spotlight used to. All done!